WTF Annabeth
Chapter 6

Percy

By the end of the week I had bags under my eyes, both from staying up talking combat with the other first years and from getting little sleep due to Annabeth sneaking in after hours and waking me up. We talked about this a lot, every night in fact, but it was to no avail. I tried locking the door but she had learned a spell, aloha or something like that, and could open it anyway.

Friday was a slack day for us in theory. We had double potions in the morning with Slytherin, and after lunch were hunting with Hagrid at his invitation. At three we were to be at the training room for our third training session, and it was that which kept me going. That and the occasional splash of water to my face.

Professor Snape was a greasy haired freak who had never found a proper shampoo so he over used conditioner. He didn't speak so much as he slowly snarled, every word dripping with venom. And he clearly hated all things not Slytherin, especially if they were named "Potter." Sixth and seventh year students had given us some tips on surviving his class, mostly by clearing one's thoughts when he attempted legilemcy to pry into our minds. We were warned he was a master at it and would use it rather than actually trying to learn anything by asking. We read the early material in earnest twice, and the entire text was as a minimum scanned so that we might be prepared. It was the best we could do in the time available, and it was pretty boring stuff. Annabeth and I used a handy translation spell Harry had found to convert it to Greek, which helped but my Greek was not very good. When I converted it back to English though I was still able to read it better than in its original form, although the order of the words made no sense to anyone else.

The class started poorly when Snape called the roll and paused at Harry's name to announce sarcastically that he was "our newest celebrity." It decayed rapidly after that. Snape said some non ADHD approved crap about bottling fame or something, then snapped at Harry.

"Potter! What would I get if added powered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Both Hermione and Annabeth's hands shot in the air, and both were ignored.

"Asphodel and wormwood?" Harry asked as Snape sneered and the Slytherins sniggered. "Uh, that would make that sleeping potion, 'Living Death', is that the name of it?"

"Draught of the Living Death. Not bad Potter. Ladies put your hands down. Lets try again shall we? Where would you look if I asked you to find a bezoar?

Again both girl's hands shot to the sky while Harry tried to remember his reading.

"Oh, that's easy! That's one of those gall stones or whatever in a goat's stomach isn't it? I was wondering, do you have to kill the goat or just give it something like ipecac to make them throw it up? The text isn't clear on that."

"You kill the goat, of course. So you reviewed your text. I'm surprised. I assumed the life of a celebrity left little time for practical studies. Perhaps you could tell the class the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

This time Annabeth would not be ignored and just blurted the answer out.

"That's a trick question, those are the same thing!"

And that is when it happened. Snape sneered at Annabeth, his eyes full of rage and anger and it was clear he was attempting to do something magical, most likely invade her mind. Annabeth just smiled at him and continued. "I'm sorry, in America when the teacher asks a question you just give the answer. I'm still getting used to how you do things here."

I hoped Annabeth would be able to blank her mind to defend against his mental intrusion, but as she smiled I knew she had followed a different strategy. Snape stared at her for a moment with wicked sneer, then jumped back in fear, drawing his wand.

"Egaaahhhh! Get up! Keep your hands where I can see them!" He near shouted as he aimed his wand at her, then at me.

"You too Jackson, you two are always together, thick as thieves, I imagine you are just as deep with the forces of darkness as she is!"

"Forces of darkness? What?" I asked. Annabeth just shrugged her shoulders and grinned.

We went quietly though and Snape directed us up from the dungeon he taught in to Dumbledore's office.

"Headmaster! Your wand, draw it, these two! I have scryed her mind and she is in league with darkness! I have seen her memories from the underworld, the furies, riding on a river of broken dreams and promises, being friends with a demonic satyr, the throne room of Hades even! I saw this one, Jackson, in her mind speaking with Hades! Headmaster, it is fortunate that I was able to learn this before they killed Potter or one of the other students!"

Dumbledore just stared, seemingly confused.

"Headmaster" Annabeth calmly asked, "Do all your instructors try to enter the minds of twelve year old girls?"

"You are not twelve! Anyone can see that is a lie!" Snape snarled.

"Hmmm, putting that aside, Headmaster, do all your instructors invade the minds of young women? You see, I could tell Professor Snape was attempting to enter my mind. I know the defense for that is to blank your mind, but I'm just no good at that. So instead, I just thought of things I had seen on my quest with Harry, Percy and our friend Grover, he's a satyr but hardly demonic, he just got his seeker license, earlier this summer. There is nothing at all demonic about Grover. Professor Snape seemed startled by what I saw there. I can't help that, he should not have been trying to read my thoughts anyway. Is he going to come to Gryffindor Tower and rifle through my underwear drawer next? What sort of sordid, filthy, perverts do you hire here?"

"Harry went to the underworld?" Dumbledore asked.

"No, Charon wouldn't let me, or I would have." Harry said from behind us. I didn't even know he was there.

"You mean Chiron the camp director?" Dumbledore asked.

"No Charon. The ferryman on the River Styx." Harry replied. "No, Chiron didn't even specifically give me permission to sneak off and go on the quest, but I couldn't let my friends down." Harry replied as he smiled at us.

"I see. Professor, these are the American students we spoke of earlier. I have it on the best authority that Miss Chase is indeed twelve."

"But Headmaster! The things I saw in her mind..."

"Are quite horrible I imagine. However the same authority tells me that indeed Miss Chase and Mr Jackson ventured to the underworld at the direction of, ermmmm, their family for lack of a better word, and did so on the highest authority to save us from a war between the gods of Olympus. That they survived is a miracle, and I advise you not to scry their minds for you must surely find worse than what you saw in what I hope was only a few moments. We have talked of this before and I will say it in the presence of these children now. You are not to enter the minds of students except when you believe they are cheating in class or committing a criminal act. A violation of school rules is not sufficient. I will allow it no more than I would allow the use of veritas serum. Are we clear on this?"

"Yes Headmaster, of course. I suspected some cheating as Mr Potter and Miss Chase, they were able to answer the questions I put to first years that none have ever answered."

"How is it you knew the answers?" Dumbledore asked Harry.

"What? I read. I have read all my texts in the last couple weeks. We all have." Harry replied.

"Very well. I am satisfied this matter is concluded. You may return to class Mr Potter, or since your instructor is here, take the morning off. Miss Chase, Mr Jackson, may I have a word on another matter?"

"Certainly Headmaster." I replied. So clear was our victory even Rue didn't mind being sent off while he talked to us. Once gone Dumbledore smiled and said "While I don't allow the random invasion of minds, I suspect that given Professor Snape's lack of knowledge as to your purpose here, or rather your other purpose here, his invasion while not well founded, was innocent in his intent. There is a way those memories can be extracted and viewed voluntarily, if you would allow it, and I believe that will allow the Professor to better understand your past training and the events that transpired to bring you here. But only if you would allow it."

"So you and he would see everything we did and thought?"

"Primarily the quest you were on and your meeting with, what did you describe her as, a police officer?"

"No." I replied. "We can't show you that. You would probably go insane when she revealed herself, we know not to look, but the memory is there and, well, best not risk that. But you could see the rest of the quest. I don't really have a problem with that." I said.

"I'm not showing you anything, look at Percy's."

"Why not?" Snape asked with a sneer.

"Because parts of it are deeply personal and you don't need to know them."

"You mean the scarf stuff?" Percy asked.

"Yes. They will see enough of that from your perspective. They don't need mine. But you don't have to if you don't..."

"Oh, I don't mind, I have nothing to hide. Go ahead, read my mind. Oh, but then destroy any record, and I don't want anything you see repeated to anyone. And tell Professor Snape why you believe we are here. And he must swear on the River Styx to not reveal anything. Agreed?"

"What do you mean, 'Swear on the River Styx'?"

"It makes it unbreakable in our world. Not sure about here, but you don't want to find out. So swear it."

"I swear not to reveal what I see or what I am told upon the River Styx." Snape said half heartedly, and suddenly there was a peal of thunder in the distance. They both looked around startled.

"Agreed." Dumbledore said as he held a vial in one hand and touched his wand to my temple with the other. "Think over the events where you think they started and ended. Magic will do the rest."

"Ah there we are" He said as he held a small vial filled with silvery ether, "Severus I believe that Mr Jackson and Miss Chase are here at the direction of she who gave us magic to protect Mr Potter. This is somewhat confirmed by what they tell me transpired in a meeting they had with Hecate shortly before their names appeared in the first year roll. As noted by Master Jackson, he has not revealed that part, however I think you will see a story that will fascinate you and fill in the blanks as it were as to the mortal children of gods other than Hecate. Children, what we are about to do may appear odd, but we will review this memory in a magical font called a 'penseive.' Through it we will see and feel what you saw and felt over several days Master Jackson, but it will take us but a moment."

A metallic disc seemed to float across the room and Dumbledore poured the vial into it. They both then stared into it for several minutes, their expressions remaining unchanged. When they lifted their heads, both stared at us shocked.

"You fought the Minotaur, and Ares?" Dumbledore asked.

"You really are twelve?" Snape asked.

"Yes, but Harry helped, with Ares anyway, you may not have seen that, I barely caught a glimpse of him but it was that spider thing he threw that held Ares under until he escaped." I replied.

Snape slumped into a chair, stunned. "Headmaster, we are dealing with forces of direct sorcery the world has not seen in thousands of years.

"Well, our world has. But it has to be kept from everyone else's. That is why I had you swear.

"Indeed. Your history is fantastic. So you are the children of Athena and Poseidon. That's incredible. I will do all I can to assist you, but now you must swear that no one must know, not even Mr Potter." Snape said.

"Uh... assist us with what?"

"As you learn more about recent magical history, you may discern the precarious position Severus is in. He must appear to despise Harry, and his friends, but know this. I trust Severus with my life and his loyalty is unquestionable. He has his own reasons for this, and I respect his wishes in this regard. I don't expect you to understand, but Professor Snape must continue to be... ermmmm, difficult with you." Dumbledore said, probably just to confuse us more.

"It is nothing personal. Know that from what I have seen, I hold you in the highest regard." Snape said.

So we left, and we were left with the conclusion that Snape was an ass, not because he naturally was, but because he wanted to be. What a jerk!

After lunch but before training we went to see Hagrid. Ron and Hermione decided to join us as Ron had nothing else to do and was bored, whereas Hermione had the same homework and wanted to do it, but couldn't convince either Ron nor ourselves to act responsibly. Hagrid had invited us for later in the afternoon, but our training schedule had altered that and we sent word via owl that we would come earlier if that was acceptable. Unfortunately we would not be able to hunt, but that was rescheduled to the weekend. The return owl had told us it was.

We were all greeted by the biggest dog I had seen since the one that tried to kill me. It took up a good third of the cabin, and although huge, it was apparent after a few nervous minutes that he was an absolutely adorable dog. Hagrid talked on and on about Fang and you could tell there was a great deal of mutual adoration between them.

We had hot tea and told Hagrid about our classes and especially about our encounter with Snape. Harry noticed a story in the wizard paper Hagrid had called "The Daily Prophet" about a burglary that had occurred at Gringotts.

"Hagrid, isn't that the same vault you went to?

"What? No, I'm sure you're mistaken. So Harry what did you think of Snape? Good potions instructor?"

"Uh I suppose, but really creepy. You know he looks into the minds of his students right?"

"Nah no, thats not allowed 'cept under certain circumstances. Now Filtch, he's the one ye oughta watch. Him and that cat! I swear every time I go into the castle that cat follows me. I know he puts 'er up to it."

It was clear by his reaction that Hagrid wished to change the subject, and it occurred to me that the vault that was robbed was the one Hagrid had visited when we were at Gringotts. Whats more, it had occurred on the day we were there! It was Harry's birthday after all, we were not likely to forget that!

It seems that evening and through the weekend we would have something to talk about.